Because of a measure that rocketed from introduction to Ohio House approval in just a few hours
yesterday, state Auditor Dave Yost is about to be stymied by fellow Republicans in his effort to
audit JobsOhio and the $100 million a year in wholesale liquor profits used to fund it.

The auditor was not made aware of the maneuver until shortly before an amendment was tacked onto
a noncontroversial bill and quickly passed through the House without a single announced
hearing.

Yost and Gov. John Kasich have publicly butted heads over efforts to audit the nonprofit entity
created to take over most of the state’s economic development efforts; they have been trying for
months to work out the issue. Republicans, who control the legislature, even delayed the start of
yesterday’s House session to ensure that the bill made the calendar.

The amendment makes it clear that state wholesale liquor profits paid by the public are defined
as private money as used by JobsOhio. The bill, which passed the House 61-34, could also keep the
public from seeing details of other agreements, such as Ohio State University’s leasing of its
parking system, Republicans said.

“Obviously, they don’t want public dollars to be accounted for,” said Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria.
“How can we ever determine what our return on investment is if we can’t follow the dollars?”

Alyson Miles, Yost’s director of legislative affairs, asked a House committee for more time to
review the amendment and allow the auditor to testify on the proposal, but the request was
ignored.

“I just have too many instances where the auditor has been out in left field without a glove,”
said Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina. “I think what we wanted to do was make (our intent)
absolutely clear so that people wouldn’t start to question us.”

Under the proposal, which is likely to get final Senate approval today, Yost could audit only
liquor profits and excise taxes that JobsOhio owes back to the state to cover various expenses, but
not the entity’s key source of operating funds, or any private donations.

The Kasich administration says JobsOhio will still be audited by a private accounting firm, but
there are questions about what level of detail that would provide.

“Number one, it says what we intended it to say, which is the liquor money is private money.
JobsOhio is a private organization. And that’s most important,” Kasich said last night before a
speech at a local Republican dinner in Auglaize County.

The state auditor and JobsOhio will select the private auditing firm, and if problems are found,
“then the auditor can come in and do his job, and it will all be made public,” Kasich said.

The administration has raised concerns that if the auditor gets into its books, private
companies will be unwilling to work on development deals with JobsOhio out of fear that they, too,
will be subject to public auditing.

“Private organizations intersect with state government for many reasons,” Marty McGann of the
Greater Cleveland Partnership told a House committee yesterday. “The state’s ability to reach into
a private business should not be limitless as a result.”

Yost did not return several calls seeking comment. Asked about the ongoing negotiations with
Yost, Kasich said: “JobsOhio was talking to him; at some point, you’ve got to decide what you’re
going to do.”

Democrats have pushed for more transparency of the 2-year-old entity and argued yesterday that
Republicans were trying to further shroud JobsOhio in secrecy.

As a state-created entity funded by state liquor profits, staffed largely by former state
development employees and run by a Kasich-appointed board, Democrats have argued that JobsOhio
should adhere to the same transparency and ethics as other state agencies.

Rep. John Patrick Carney, D-Columbus, a likely 2014 candidate for state auditor, said there is
no “water-into-wine moment” that turns state liquor profits into private money just because it’s
handed to JobsOhio “for John Kasich to spend as he pleases.”